discover on waking that I was halfway around the world battling an ancient demon. He . . . didn’t take it well.”
Of course, that might have had something to do with the fact that we had just, and I mean just, finished fighting a queen of the light fey, during which time his body had been taken over by an outside force and used as a weapon to try to kill me.
He had very nearly succeeded.
He had also been seriously traumatized by the whole affair, more than I’d realized, frankly. And then my unexpected side trip took place and . . . well. After I recovered, I’d been forcefully reminded of the fact that my husband had red in his hair. He’d presented me with an ultimatum and I chose him.
Ray was eyeing me. “If this is some kind of extended honeymoon, then why did you call me?”
“Call it an itch.”
I got up and walked to the railing. Damn, it was beautiful here, and romantic—or it would have been, had Louis-Cesare and I gotten half a second alone. Instead, we’d been wined and dined and escorted to that famous site and this ancient statue, as the local senate pulled out all the stops for their illustrious guests.
Well, guest, anyway.
“What kind of itch?” Ray asked, joining me, although his eyes were darting worriedly around the terrace. There was nobody else out here, with the main event about to start inside, but I didn’t blame him. We’d been through a lot lately. “You mean, like intuition?”
“No, I mean like being on unfamiliar ground with a famous senator during a war. The consul’s control over the alliance is tenuous and everybody knows it. If Louis-Cesare was to get assassinated, it might tip the political balance. He wants me on this damned tour because he thinks it’s safer. I think—”
“That he’s a target.”
I nodded.
“You’re a senator now, too," Ray pointed out. "Why aren’t you a target?”
“I’m not a dueling champion. If anyone wants to be considered a legit successor to the consul, they have to duel her, and she’s named Louis-Cesare as her champion before—”
“Dory—”
“—so why not again? Nobody wants to fight him, and a war is the perfect time to take him out before a challenge is even issued and blame it on somebody else—”
“You've thought about this.”
“Of course, I have. Two birds, one stone. Weaken her politically and make the challenge easier at the same time. It’s how they think; you know it is—”
“Dory!” Ray put a hand over the one I had clenched on the railing. “He’s a dueling champion surrounded by vamp bodyguards. I think he’s fine.”
I eyed the four huge vamps inside, who were dimly visible through the striations of setting sun on the glass. They were trying their best not to look like gorillas in their tuxes, which was a complete waste of time standing near my elegant husband. They were big, they were badass—or so they thought—and they were all but useless against the kind of things we had been fighting. And I didn’t mean just our enemies.
I narrowed my eyes at Hassani, who had started life as an expert assassin and, as far as I knew, had never gone out of practice. I hadn’t had to ask if he wanted to head up the new Vampire World Senate. He was a master vamp; he wanted it. And Louis-Cesare could be his ticket to ride.
Especially when the so-called bodyguards were busy scanning the crowd, while completely ignoring the much more dangerous man standing right beside them!
Not that I really thought that Hassani—or anyone else—would try something so openly, but vampires were tricky, especially the old ones. You never knew how their minds worked. And, yeah, I was paranoid, but I had reason to be, and my nerves—
Were a little on edge, I thought, realizing half a second after it happened that I had whirled, my body splayed out in a lunge, to hold a terrified waiter at knife point.
He didn’t move and he didn’t scream, although the front of his nice dark trousers got a little darker as we stood there in our little tableau, staring at each other.
“What?” I asked, realizing that Ray had said something.
“I was gonna ask why you don’t rate any guards,” he said dryly.
“Two of them are mine. I put them on Louis-Cesare,” I said, and pulled the knife back.
It was at the other end of the stake for convenience, and thin enough not to bulge my dress. I’d been flashing it